11th-hour pitch made to save Fort Pitt wall

The Fort Pitt Preservation Society has floated an "alternative plan" aimed at preserving a big portion of the historic Music Bastion wall that would be buried by the ongoing $35 million state park renovation project.

The plan, unveiled at a morning news conference yesterday at the Hilton Pittsburgh hotel across the street from the 18-acre park, would preserve more than two-thirds of the moat and wall in its current configuration except for a 100-to-150-foot section at the north end that would be filled in.

It also proposes a pedestrian drawbridge and walkway over the moat, at the original location of the fort's main gate, that would help facilitate pedestrian movement, a stated goal of the existing renovation plan for the 35-year-old park.